It's been a year since it all happened. I feel like I can talk about this now. Please be aware that this is a long post.
My parents founded a small business in the 80s in international sports media production. Over time, they transitioned into the broadcasting/signal transmissioning business. I grew up expecting to join the company after I graduated. I'd take it over when they retired. At the time, we had three employees (the engineer, myself, and my dad).
It was all going well. In 2020, I graduated from university and started working with my dad. But then COVID came. The sports industry died, and we couldn't pay the bills for rent (the landlord knew we couldn't move due to our equipment on the roof and had been hiking up the rent). They were forced to sell the company.
My mum became a 40% shareholder while my dad was reduced to being an employee.
I should have known how shit things were going to be the moment the company was sold. The company that bought us specialized in buying and selling international media rights to sports. One of the partners was a sexist old man who made his money selling t-shirts. When the company was sold, he proclaimed himself as the CEO (nobody agreed to that).
The nature of the job meant I was working 9-5 and on call 24/7 (sometimes I'd work 4AM to 6AM and still have to come into work the next day). There were no benefits, and they refused to pay overtime. They're wanted to pay the engineer minimum wage, even though nothing gaoorns without him.
Despite managing all the bookings and schedule and orders, they didn't want to pay me more than minimum wage. I remember them going on a rant about how I was young and inexperienced. They even said if they paid me more, they'd have higher expectations because I'm the “family legacy.” The only reason I got paid more was because my mother refused to sell the company until they agreed to it. My dad only gets paid for three half days a week at minimum wage.
Morale was extremely low. They kept focusing on saving money. They did not understand that profit margins would always be low for us because we were middlemen. The CEO told me to raise our prices by 20% because he could (while ignoring that it wouldn't be competitive anymore). They refused to spend any money, too.
My supervisor (who was basically a useless tool of a lackey to the CEO and did nothing all day) kept asking if we needed the phone lines. I always said yes until finally. I got fed up and made him talk to the engineer about it. It turns out technical things are taken more seriously when it comes out of a man's mouth.
The CEO decided we needed to do marketing. My supervisor told me to join the meetings, despite I know nothing about marketing. He said it was because they needed to know their information was technically correct. I was always ignored after I kept saying their information was straight up wrong or a lie. Every one of my clients (who I've known all my life) would send me private communication asking me if I was aware of how terrible the marketing emails were.
An extremely big international hockey championship came up. It was a lot of work for both me, the engineer, and my dad to organize the transmission path and book everything. When it was over, the company sent out a press release, taking all the credit for everything (of course, the engineer and I weren't given any credit, but my supervisor who did nothing was). The idiots sent it to the client, too. The companies we worked with threatened to sue us unless we changed the press release. Guess who took the blame? Me. The clients all knew it wasn't me, though.
The final straw for me was during a stupid marketing meeting. My mum had a major surgery, so I was working from home to take care of her. Halfway through, she turned on the TV in a separate room. There was a little bit of background noise during the phone call. The CEO accused me of watching TV during a meeting and called me a disappointment and a failure.
I quit right after.
The engineer, who'd I'd known since I was a baby, begged me to stay. He and I cried. I've met him a few times since then, and it seems like something in him died. It's very sad.
My dad's been able to slowly retire, but for a while, he had to take over my job, and they wouldn't pay him more. My mother had to use her position to threaten them. Either they pay my dad made, or they make him work less. They chose the former and hired someone new.
I work in IT now at one or the biggest lawfirms in the country. I get paid three times the amount I used to. I get insurance, and I get overtime pay and sick leave.
Fuck that company.